Zero waste is the slogan. What puts ordinary use in order?
When a material gift enters my hands, have I already decided its proper use, or will appetite and disposal quietly decide the whole chain for me?
Learn the source
Rabbeinu Bachya writes, “לסדר עניניהם בה בעולם הזה — To put their affairs in order through it in this world.” The exact Hebrew and Torah Lens’s English rendering appear with the source below.
Shaar HaPerishus first considers bodily need and the damage of excess. It then explicitly rejects a world in which everyone abandons work, family and ordinary responsibility. Perishus here is not escape from material life; it is the discipline that lets material life remain ordered toward its purpose before Hashem.
What happened
At COP31 in Antalya on November 11, Turkey urged a global zero-waste initiative and presented its own recovery figures.
A UNFCCC leaders’ roundtable promoted shared 2035 ambitions to slow projected municipal-waste growth and raise circular material use.
The UN Secretary-General linked food waste to substantial emissions and called for collection, composting and infrastructure, not pledges alone.
Associated Press reporting also described the cost, logistics and missing capacity that can keep recycling goals from becoming ordinary practice.
Associated Press · Turkey urges zero-waste plan at COP31 · 11 November 2026 ↗UNFCCC · Zero Waste, Circularity and Methane leaders’ roundtable brief · 11 November 2026 ↗UNFCCC · UN Secretary-General remarks on zero waste and methane · 11 November 2026 ↗Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye · COP31 leaders’ summit speech · 11 November 2026 ↗
Return to the news
‘Zero waste’ can sound like a demand to leave material life behind. Rabbeinu Bachya says the opposite about perishus: its task is to order life in this world. The COP31 discussion makes that concrete. Reuse does not happen through a noble slogan alone; collection, sorting, transport, markets and habits must be arranged before a discarded object becomes useful again. The same is true in ordinary avodah. Restraint is not refusing every comfort or distrusting Hashem’s gifts. It is receiving a thing with enough order that appetite does not decide the whole chain—how much I take, how carefully I use it, and what I leave behind. Before the bin, there was a choice about use.
Stay with the thought
The public claim is large: waste should be prevented, materials kept in use, and discarded matter recovered. The records also make clear that a slogan does not sort, carry or reuse anything by itself.
That gap is the point of contact with Rabbeinu Bachya. Perishus is not a dramatic rejection of the physical world. It is the quieter work of arranging how I receive and use that world before excess becomes the default.
A person can speak admiringly about reuse while still taking without measure at home. The vaad therefore does not issue a policy verdict or certify a country’s figures. It asks what happens in my own hands before an object reaches the bin.
Before Hashem, ordinary consumption is not ownerless. The food, clothing, paper or device may be enjoyed and used; the question is whether I decide what enough and careful use look like, or leave that decision to appetite and habit.
Chovos Halevavos · Shaar HaPerishus, chapter 1 ↗Associated Press · Turkey urges zero-waste plan at COP31 · 11 November 2026 ↗UNFCCC · Zero Waste, Circularity and Methane leaders’ roundtable brief · 11 November 2026 ↗
Take one thing with you
Choose one ordinary item before buying, opening or serving it today. Name what enough is, how you will use it carefully, and what will happen to the remainder.
A reflection, not a personal halachic ruling.Sources & reporting notes 5 references
- Associated Press · Turkey urges zero-waste plan at COP31 · 11 November 2026 ↗
Fresh report retrieved November 13. It documents Turkey’s zero-waste push, the president’s recovery-rate claims, the emissions and mining arguments for circular use, and practical limits involving cost, logistics, infrastructure and national methane commitments. Government performance figures remain attributed claims.
- UNFCCC · Zero Waste, Circularity and Methane leaders’ roundtable brief · 11 November 2026 ↗
Official two-page event brief retrieved November 13. It confirms the Antalya roundtable, describes preventing waste and keeping materials in use longer, and states shared 2035 ambitions for slowing projected municipal-waste growth and increasing circular material use. It describes aims and requested commitments, not completed results.
- UNFCCC · UN Secretary-General remarks on zero waste and methane · 11 November 2026 ↗
Official transcript retrieved November 13. It says food loss and waste generate 8–10% of global greenhouse-gas emissions and calls for prevention, durable products, collection, composting and circular infrastructure. The figures and policy prescriptions are presented as the speaker’s case.
- Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye · COP31 leaders’ summit speech · 11 November 2026 ↗
Official Turkish transcript retrieved November 13. It is primary evidence that the president announced the recovery-rate and recovered-tonnage figures and framed COP31 around implementation. Those figures are not treated as independent verification.
- Chovos Halevavos · Shaar HaPerishus, chapter 1 ↗
Exact approved automatic-corpus excerpt and Torah Lens’s original English rendering. The chapter discusses bodily needs and the harm of excess, then rejects abandoning ordinary work and family life. The application concerns measured use, not fasting, deprivation, withdrawal or an ascetic regimen.
Hebrew passages are quoted sources; English renderings are our own. The event connection and suggested reflection are Torah Lens’s application. Prepared with AI assistance. Rabbinic supervision has not yet been established.